


I Was Human But They Kicked Meowt

by polyxena_chatoyant



Series: Cat Puns and Human Woes [1]
Category: Warriors - Erin Hunter
Genre: Multi, Other, Sorry Not Sorry, be prepared for many puns
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-04
Updated: 2016-01-04
Packaged: 2018-05-11 17:29:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5635579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/polyxena_chatoyant/pseuds/polyxena_chatoyant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(or: How Many Cat Puns Can I Stick In Here)</p><p>I was told I wasn't supposed to be born. I know that, StarClan knows that. But hey, I'm a pretty good narrator; they call me J.R.R. Tolkitten.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: You have got to be kitten me right now!

**Author's Note:**

> Basic character insert, just be glad I didn't post to FFN. And hey, you're reading this, so we're going to hell together, pal.

I can safely assume that I am either in a coma or have died. I don’t know which option is worse at this point, but honestly I’d rather just like to be more aware of wherever the fuck I am. I can’t see, I can’t taste, I can’t hear much except for _maybe_ my own heartbeat. It’s all very fucked up.

Every time my thoughts drift back to just how things came to be like this, I feel like I want to cry. I don’t really want to think about it anymore, either, but I know that if I don’t come to terms with it, it will only cause problems. Therapy taught me that much. Besides, there’s not anyone else to talk to but myself, might as well root through this thing in my head.

So. Recap. 

Family dinner at nearby restaurant. Things start out cool, we’re all laughing, there’s small-talk, the waiter is joking around with us. Then, Brian, my dumbass of a twin brother, makes a comment to Annie, who, being only twelve and dealing with middle school girl problems that come with that, takes the most offense _ever_. And she doesn’t let go.

And somehow I was dragged into the argument? I don’t even remember how anymore. But suddenly, Brian was blurting out that Nina was my girlfriend. Which was a secret that I had trusted him with, one that had been kept for nearly six months. The only reason why were still able to be together, in fact. Table goes quiet, I didn’t know what to say, and then the bomb drops. Mom and dad. It’s an interrogation, one that has me bursting into tears after five minutes and running to the bathroom. 

I remember calling Nina. Told her what had happened, warned her I might go AWOL. She was worried, she and her family knew just why we’d kept our relationship a secret, what with homophobic parents that couldn’t deal with me trying to figure out my sexuality the first time. (Therapy is pretty okay as long as you aren’t being sent to a correctional therapist, I learned.) Mom came into the bathroom then, grabbed my phone from me and hung up after a struggle for it.

We left the restaurant. Brian realized how big of a mistake he’d made. He’d promised to keep it a secret until I told them after graduation next spring, when I could legally jet out when things got bad. He apologized quietly in the car - which set off dad’s temper once more. Dad turned in the drivers seat to yell at me, and then suddenly we were speeding through an intersection and a truck was barreling right into the side of our car. My side, in fact.

I’ve got scars from the last time I was hit by a car and that was a voluntary act that had me in a psych hospital. The second time was less painful, seeing as I had a car door between the other car and I. Still, it hurt like a motherfucker and I heard the unmistakable sound of my head cracking hard enough that I was going have another scar on my forehead. There was screaming and screeching and things went dark.

(At the moment, I just want to go back to Nina’s house and have her hold me. God, I would cry until I felt better and she would kiss away my tears and it wouldn’t matter that my life would be hell for months until graduation. All because I had her by my side.)

So. Dealing with this. 

Brian couldn’t have known what would happen. He was mad when he blurted out my relationship. He isn’t to be blamed, but should get some classes on keeping his mouth shut. I can only be angry at him because he blabbed, and even that I’m not too angry about anymore. (I can’t tell how long it’s been since the accident. It feels like weeks.)

Annie’s twelve. Hormones are just beginning to rage in her body. She can’t be held accountable for the fact that she was pissed at a stupid insult. 

Mom and dad couldn’t have known that leaving the restaurant would lead to a car accident. They aren’t to blame for my current situation, but I half dread seeing them again for the resulting isolation they’re going to put me through again, and all the ‘correctional’ therapy I’m going to have to deal with.

The one to blame for the accident? Dad. A) He was driving. He should know that just that fact means that he had our lives in our hands. He should never have turned around in his seat, not even to yell at me. Which brings me to B) Dad is an adult and should know how to control his temper in situations where yelling isn’t ideal. One of them being when you’re driving. 

I don’t blame the other driver. Dad was speeding, so they couldn’t have had time to stop or slow down. They might have swerved, but hey, didn’t work if they did. Besides, it’s in the past now. (I think. I could be lying on the side of the road right now, dreaming.)

But here’s the question: should I continue to be mad at dad when the accident has already happened and I need to build myself back up? I won’t forget it, what he did - or, more appropriately, what he _didn’t_ do, act like the adult he is - but I will forgive. Because he didn’t mean to. And that’s a shitty excuse, but it’s the only one I’ve got right now.

Not that I’m totally forgiving yet. I’ll work on it.

Mental dialogue for now, done. Heh.

* * *

 

Something’s happening. I’m feeling something. And it _hurts._ The warmth around me is disappearing, splotches of it, one by one until I’m cold and suddenly I know there are walls around me pressing tight and moving me in some unknown direction. Like I’m being forced through a keyhole, pinky-finger first.

And then I’m tumbling out of my keyhole and the cold from before is no comparison to this tundra. The sudden realization that I was _awake_ and _had a body to feel_ was enough to leave me wailing in relief, but the tundra had me crying in near-pain. I was pushed by someone, to where I was rolled next to other bodies - my family? I couldn’t hear anything or see anything, but I could feel and smell. It smelled like winter, the crisp, cold air that meant snow or the days before it. I was wrapped in fur, pressed up against something furry, maybe a pillow, that smelled like _home_ but not _home._ It was also vibrating? 

Something rough was rubbing me down, warming me up. A towel? Wash-cloth? A really useless blanket? Either way, it was drying me from whatever was wetting me and making the cold worse. I nestled into the fur blankets around me, pressed against the vibrating, furry pillow, and stopped my crying. I wanted to sleep.

* * *

 

The next day - I presume so, at least - was even colder, when I wriggled out of my blanket-fortress. I could only, for some reason, move on all fours, but I reasoned that out pretty quickly. If I’d been in a coma, my muscles would’ve got to shit and that could also be the reason for my lack of senses. I’d need to retrain my body to do everything, which might take months. I’d need help to do everything. But at least I wasn’t dead.

I was only away from bed for a moment before someone pushed me back. And then I smelled something really, really delicious. Warm milk. I grabbed onto the bottle teat and suckled greedily. I was probably in some kind of hospital, so the milk was probably full of nutrients that I’d need until I could handle solids again.

I was grateful when I was full and fell back asleep, warm and happy, wondering when I’d see Nina again…

* * *

 

The next day, I discovered that my furry blankets were not furry blankets. They were animals, probably service dogs to help me feel safe. Psychology shit, you know? I wriggled around with them on the floor, giggling to myself though I couldn’t really hear it. I probably looked ridiculous. But I was grateful, either way. 

But the air was cold, so my service dogs and I went back to my bed, where we cuddled together. Two larger service dogs (if that’s possible, probably mastiffs) curled around us, and I discovered my vibrating pillow was one of them. What kind of hospital doesn’t have blankets or pillows? At least I’ve got a soft bed. Right?

One of the service dogs, the big ones curled around the littler ones and I, stirred. There was another dog near us, though I couldn’t tell how I knew. 

And then I heard something, whispered in my head, like a thought of my own but in a different voice. It made me jerk in surprise.

“ _You were not supposed to be born, little one,_ ” the voice whispered. “ _But it seems that things change…_ ”

Oh god I’m going crazy.

One of the little dogs next to me was vibrating, as though it was barking or something. The others were sleeping peacefully. And I was going cray-cray.

* * *

I had the growing suspicion that no, I had not been in a coma. Yes, I had died. 

Yes, I had been reborn. (That’s what that terrible waking sensation was, I guess. Birth. Yuck. _Don’t think about it, Beth, don’t think about it…_ )

And I might be an animal. Probably a cat. Based on the amount of meowing going on around me. 

Yeah. (Or I’m going crazy, which isn’t a very nice option, but neither is this.)

I’m going to put off my breakdown. Usually works. Sometimes.

* * *

 

I got to open my eyes at one point. My brand-new kitten eyes…

_Anyways_ , I got to see things, and my hypothesis was proven correct. I am a kitten, of a litter of four including me. And we’re living in a hallow log. I’m the first to open my eyes, so I’m greeted with the sight of fur pressed up in my face, light-grey tabby fur, and it smells familiar. One of my…littermates? I guess.

I lift my head up and make a strangled mew. Which I’m still getting used to. 

There are two cats around, full grown and seeming giants to my new-found tinyness. Both are tabby cats, short-fur’s, but one has brown fur and the other ginger. Oh, and the ginger cat’s tail is really fucking bushy and short. It makes me snort, which comes out like a strangled dying sound from my new vocal cords. 

The brown tabby, whose eyes are a light brown (amber, maybe), mews in my face a lot and then starts licking me. (Found out what that useless rag was that was cleaning me on my birth. Urgh.) The ginger tabby purrs loudly, vibrating the air with the noise. I’m oddly comforted by the sound, and inexplicably a strangled, half-formed purr rises in answer.

God, I’m going to have to learn to speak cat. Like French wasn’t enough on top of English. Fuck me.

* * *

 

Days pass. Two other kittens open their eyes; the big, golden tabby has amber eyes like the brown tabby (our mom?), and the black cat has green eyes. Hella. The littlest one, the light-grey tabby that I find myself pressed up against most of the time, still hasn’t opened its eyes yet. How do you tell the sex of a cat? You can’t really stick your head under them and check for balls with kittens, right? Jeez…

Oh shit. Do cats have concepts of gender or sexuality?!

* * *

 

There’s snow outside. Our mother, the brown tabby I think, she took us outside with the ginger tabby. I stuck closer to the brown tabby than my siblings ( _Brain, Annie, guys I miss you_ ) testing the snow carefully with my paws with each step. I watch them in fascination, sometimes tripping at the sensation of walking on four legs instead of two. My fur almost seems black, like the other kitten’s, but if you look closely, it’s a very dark grey and even darker grey tabby lines. Creepy, but I don’t mind it.

Theres a thump, soft and muffled by snow, and I look up. My lighter grey sibling has found itself stuck in the snow, face first. I laugh, as much as I can as a cat, and tumble over it, mama-cat at my heels. The little tabby is pulled out of the snow, and I see that its eyes are a beautiful, clear blue. Like icy, Caribbean water. Beautiful.

Mama-cat meows and twitches her whiskers, and the ginger tabby comes over. (I don’t think its our father, but I can’t be sure. Its eyes are the same green as the black-furred kitten) They talk back and forth for a while, and I rub my cheek against my sibling’s, purring. It gives an answering purr, rubbing back, too.

Mama-cat and Ginger Tabby grab us by our scruffs. I dislike this, because it makes my body go limp and I have to stare ahead stone-faced or look down at my limp tail and paws. They nudge our other siblings along back into the tree hallow. We kittens make quick work out of the nest as soon as Mama-cat cleans us up and I follow their lead. 

Golden Tabby is playing around with a bit of…moss? Ew. Its rolling around with it in its paws, growling. Oh. Its play-fighting. Or play-hunting?

(Oh my god I’m going to have to eat mice. I’d choose nipple-feeding over that any day.)

I wonder for a moment. Should I play? Should I act my kitten age? How do cat lifespans even work? It’s been years since I did any research on animals. Fuck it, I’ll play.

I crouch, the way I’d seen my pets Toby and Jim (two cats from the same litter we’d adopted a year before The Accident) do when they were play-fighting/hunting each other. It’s almost like instinct takes over me, as my butt wiggles and I inch forward on my paws. Green Eyes has already lunged, without really thinking about it. I hear Mama-cat and Ginger Tabby laughing at us. Blue Eyes has fallen but got up and is heading towards me, and I can… smell? his curiosity. 

When I’m close enough, I lunge for the moss ball, swiping it out from under Golden Tabby and Green Eyes, grabbing it in my mouth and running towards Mama-cat. Golden Tabby tackles me and we wrestle, but as soon as its pinned me we notice that Blue Eyes and Green Eyes took advantage of our distraction and took the moss ball, teaming up against us. Golden Tabby and I lock eyes, a silent agreement across our language barrier. _They’re going down._

* * *

 

Weeks have passed. Cat-speak is coming to me, slower than my siblings, but I can understand them all easily enough. It’s speaking, myself, that is harder. 

Mama-cat’s name is Leafpool. Fucking weird for a cat, but then again, human names are probably weird to them. Whatever. Apparently, Ginger Tabby is Leafpool’s sister, Squirrelflight. I understand this one, looking at her tail. I actually laughed for five minutes, a strangled half-purr half-cough, when I put it together.

My siblings are interesting. I’ve two brothers and a sister. I am the youngest. Hollykit is Green Eyes, Lionkit is Golden Tabby, and Jaykit is Blue Eyes. I, you might be wondering, am Ravenkit. I don’t know how long it will take me to get used to that, answering to a weird-ass name instead of Beth Reid. I wonder what’s up with the whole -kit suffix thing, but don’t have the courage to ask anyone yet. 

At the moment, we’re outside our tree-hallow home. The snow has melted, and there’s a rare patch of sunshine right outside that Leafpool and Squirrelflight are basking in. My siblings and I are begging to push some dead leaves or something into a pile, leaping off a tussock into it. Like fall, when Brian and I- never mind. 

“I can jump the highest! Watch me!” Lionkit boasted, before using his strong legs to throw himself into the pile at amazing heights. 

“And me!” Jaykit squeaked, and then landed directly on Lionkit.

I burst into laughter, “Nice job!”

“Look out, Jaykit!” Hollykit put in her two-cents, but she was purring in amusement. “You’re so silly!”

My ears flicked towards our mother and Squirrelflight, when I heard them purring in laughter. Nothing like my strangled, human-ish noise.

“I think we’ve just seen some flying hedgehogs,” Squirrelflight mewed. It was still strange to hear words in that. “Come here, you two. Let’s clean you up.”

Neither of my brothers were happy with that, they wanted to play still. So, instead, they ignored our aunt and scrambled back up next to Hollykit and I, hurrying us off the tussock. I didn’t catch what the grown cats said, and was quickly wrapped in the whirlwind that is Lionkit’s adventurous personality.

Subconsciously, I attempted to move Jaykit away from a hole in the ground, but he bumbled through, blind as ever and into the hole. For a moment he was silent, but then let out a wail. I was frozen.

_Blind as ever_?

Ah, come on.

Listening to what happened after Leafpool rescued Jaykit from the hole, when she asked him to find the biggest leaf to wipe nonexistent mud off her fur, only proved it true. And I’d been subconsciously helping him out, just like the rest of my littermates it seemed. 

God, life was strange these days. 

* * *

 

Leafpool and Squirrelflight told us the next morning that we were leaving for ThunderClan. ThunderClan was the topic of every story they’d told us so far, only half-understood for me. It was apparently our home, but for some reason Leafpool couldn’t give birth to us there so we went to the tree-hallow. I could tell the grown cats were excited to go back, but weary, unlike the adventurous curiosity that plagued my siblings in every endeavor. 

At first, no one was complaining, and Lionkit was ‘leading’ the party as much as he could. But when snow began to clog our fur and our short, stumpy legs couldn’t go very fast, my brothers and sister began to whine. I just rolled my eyes, but did my fair share of whining about the cold.

It was dawn when we finally stopped, which made me pause. Night-vision. Forgot about that. We all huddled into Leafpool’s belly, and Squirrelflight curled around us. It was only a rest, one well needed. My paws ached.

“Where are we going?” Lionkit begged, fully aware of where we were going. I bet he just wanted a story or something.

“To the place where ThunderClan lives,” Leafpool purred, nuzzling Lionkit’s head. “In a big hallow full of warm dens and places for you to play. There will be lots of other cats there, and a big lake to cool your paws when it gets hot.”

A hallow? Like our tree-hallow? From the stories, we’d need a dozen of those for the entire ThunderClan…

“But I liked living in the hollow tree,” Lionkit said despondently. I leant into his side, Jaykit on my other and Hollykit on his other.

“I know you did,” Leafpool licked the top of his head, smoothing down a wayward cow-lick. “But you’re getting too big to stay there forever! You’re a ThunderClan cat, Lionkit, and you need to join your Clanmates.”

Then why did Leafpool smell so sad? Was I the only one who could tell this?

“Will they like me?”

“They’ll love you,” Leafpool purred.

“What about Ravenkit,” Lionkit continued, and I flicked my ear and glanced at him. “She can’t speak well. Will they be okay with that?” 

True. He didn’t mention Jaykit, because though blind he was, Jaykit functioned perfectly. It was me that had the most trouble, trying to get words across that I only knew in English and human tongue, sometimes forcing my strange vocal cords to say them as I knew them, strangled and jumbled though they were. But the cats couldn’t understand. So I gave up that.

“Ravenkit will be loved just as much as any other kit,” Leafpool nuzzled me this time, and I purred in response. “She’ll be fine.”

I sighed in relief.

Squirrelflight had left mid-conversation, and had just returned with a…mouse? A vole, I think. They’d had those before. I watched in horrid fascination as Leafpool scarfed it down, wondering if eating dead animals without cooking them would come that easily to me. 

As soon as Leafpool was finished, it was time to start our journey back up. And then the whining started back up. But whatever. I’m with my family.

* * *

 

We were following a stream we we saw it, sniffing around and exploring all the new scents. I’m telling, a cat’s nose could sniff out anything, fuck dogs. I followed Lionkit onto a log, the same size as him so I easily kept up. And we saw it, the lake we were told about. It was giant.

“We can see the lake!” Lionkit mewed excitedly, tail up and ears alert. “It’s as big as the world!”

I had mewed a yes after the first part, but gave my coughing-human-like laugh at the second. Kittens. But then again, I was a kitten, too.

“Let me see!” Hollykit demanded, and nearly pushed Lionkit off the log in her haste.

“Jay,” I mumbled, turning to help him nose his way slowly up the log.

“Thanks, Ravenkit,” he mumbled back, giving my nose a lick.

Lionkit followed my lead and helped Hollykit up. We all sat in awe, looking at the lake.

It was huge, truly. In the distance, I saw a wooden dock, a few sailboats docked at it. Humans. I wondered what they would seem like, now that I wasn’t one of them. Probably like giants.

Then, we were ushered on, and the land began to smell more like cats, ones we’d never met before. There were two sides to the stream, both with grassy banks but one led to open grassy hills and the other to a forest. Leafpool carried herbs rolled up in her mouth, and suddenly Hollykit wandered towards a tunnel that opened up in the ground on the hills-side of the stream we were on. 

She peered in, with me right by her side, and a gust of wind smelling heavily of cats flattened our fur. Squirrelflight was right behind us, ushering us away from the tunnel worriedly. 

“Stay away from there,” she warned. “It’s not safe for cats to go inside.”

“Who’d want to?” Lionkit asked rhetorically, nose scrunched up in distaste. “It’s all dark and scary!”

Jaykit was saying something about smelling cats - no duh, brother - when I replied.

“Adventure,” I mewed to Lionkit, and then swung my head back towards the tunnel longingly. Being a kitten was getting to me, but it’s not like I hadn’t always been getting into trouble.

I remember one time I’d heard music in the distance, flute music, and went looking for it for hours. It stopped and I couldn’t find it. Nina had been -

I focused on Squirrelflight talking, “That’s right! Those are your Clanmates.”

Hollykit bumbled into Squirrelflight’s belly, searching for nipples to suckle. “I’m hungry! Where’s all the milk gone? You smell the same, but I can’t find anything to eat!”

Squirrelflight has been eating herbs that made her give milk.

“I’m sorry, poppet,” the ginger tabby apologized, even as I eyed Leafpool with suspicion. She seemed depressed for a moment. “My milk has gone, but there’s a lovely cat called Daisy who will have plenty for you.”

I think I knew what was going on. And I didn’t like it, but if this was why Leafpool and Squirrelflight had left, I would go along with it. My siblings were already assimilating to thinking of Squirrelflight as our mother, but I was reluctant. I’d lost one mother already…

The conversation that followed about Jaykit’s sight and Leafpool’s status as the Clan’s healer was too sad to think about.

We were walking through the forest, my family speaking quietly. I took the chance to go up to Leafpool as Squirrelflight led my siblings through a bramble tunnel.

“Love you,” I purred and pushed my head into her chest. She purred in surprise. 

And then I raced down the bramble tunnel to catch up with my siblings just as we exited into a… stone quarry? This was definitely not a group of tree-hallows. Whatever. Cats.

We emerged into a clearing, and there were cats everywhere. All talking. Too loud. I huddled close to Lionkit, my brother’s tail curled around my back protectively.

“Squirrelflight! You’re back!”

“With kits? I didn’t even know you were expecting!”

“Thank StarClan Leafpool was with you! Are you all well? They look fine!”

“Brambleclaw, look! You’re a father!”


	2. Chapter One: Live Long and Pawspurr

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Ravenkit’s right,” Hollykit mewed. “The fox cubs might head this way and if they do, I bet we could smell them first - especially with Jaykit helping.”

Teaching my siblings catch was the greatest thing I’ve ever done.

“You’ll never catch it!” Lionkit squealed as he threw the freshly-caught mouse towards where Jaykit was sleeping in Squirrelflight’s otherwise empty nest.

Hollykit lunged for it still, and then landed on him, waking him up thoroughly. I sighed, tail drooping a little, and hoped Jaykit wasn’t mad. He had a sharp temper sometimes. 

“You’re awake at last!” Hollykit rolled off of him and tried using her forepaws to push him up, before going for the mouse. “Catch this, Jaykit!”

She scooped it up in a paw and tossed it towards our small brother, but he missed it by a hair. I lunged across the earthy floor of the bramble nursery and caught it instead.

“Got it!” I said triumphantly.

Jaykit lunged for me, knocking the mouse out of my paws. I twitched my whiskers happily for him - that is, until he landed on Ferncloud’s kits, Icekit and Foxkit. The pissy she-cat shoved him off of them and pulled her kits close.

“Have I hurt them?” Jaykit gasped worriedly, forever the secret mother-hen. 

“Of course not,” Ferncloud snapped, more mean than she should have been. “You’re too small to squash a flea! But you three are getting too rough for the nursery!”

It wasn’t our fault that we were six ‘moons,’ or months, old, and much bigger than the newer kits. That’s just how time worked. 

_Piss off_ , I thought half-heartedly, knowing she was just a worried mother.

“Sorry Ferncloud,” Hollykit mewed, Jaykit echoing softly. 

“It’s about time Firestar made you apprentices and moved you to the apprentice den,” Ferncloud commented, and I gave a wistful sigh.

“If only,” Lionkit and I said in unison.

“It won’t be long,” Hollykit reminded us. “We’re almost six moons old.”

Being a warrior was the only thing you could do in the Clans, unless you went the Medicine Cat route like our birth-mother.As I didn’t want to deal with sick cats all the time, (and Hollykit was already curious about the position) and I didn’t want to go into exile for becoming a house-cat, or ‘kittypet,’ that’s what I would be. Not that it was all bad - it seemed exciting and fun! Plus, I didn’t want to be in the nursery with mean-old Ferncloud anymore. 

“Well,” Ferncloud said to Hollykit after a moment. “You’re not six moons yet! And until you are, you can do your playing outside!”

“Yes, Ferncloud,” Lionkit mumbled, tail between his legs. 

“Come on, Jaykit, Ravenkit,” Hollykit called to Jaykit and I. “Bring the mouse!”

Outside the nursery, the air smelled like winter. I had a brief moment of nostalgia for our past tree-hallow. Firestar was below Highledge, ‘sharing tongues’ with his mate, Sandstorm; that’s what cats called cleaning each other while having a conversation. Dustpelt was with them, too. 

They were talking about expanding the Warriors Den and I had a brief flash of hope that my siblings and mine apprentice ceremonies would come soon. I walked with Jaykit past Brightheart and Cloudtail who were also sharing tongues but paused to speak with Jaykit. Our aunt-mother, Squirrelflight, and former kittypet Daisy were fixing up the Nursery’s walls.

Honestly, when we’d gotten back, it seemed like Daisy and Ferncloud were more our mother’s than Squirrelflight, but that’s none of my business. 

I left Jaykit as he continued to wander, running off to play with my other two siblings. Jaykit would join us in a moment, at Hollykit’s prompting when it was time to gang up on Lionkit. 

“Unfair!” the golden tabby tom protested, as Jaykit and I sat on top of him and Hollykit grabbed the mouse.

“We don’t have to be fair,” Hollykit squeaked, and I had already categorized her as a Slytherin ages ago. “We’re not in StarClan yet!”

“And you never _will_ be if you keep playing with food like that,” a towering dark grey tom who persistently smelled like fish said, and I jumped off Lionkit in surprise. Stormfur! “It’s leaf-bare. We should thank StarClan for every morsel.”

Ah, StarClan, the cat Clan version of Heaven. Which was probably real. Anything could be at this point, in my opinion. 

Lionkit nearly threw Jaykit off him, “We’re just practicing our hunting skills!”

“We have to practice,” added Jaykit. “We’ll be apprentices soon.”

I purred in agreement. Even after getting over the language barrier, I preferred to not speak.

Stormfur gave Jaykit a pitying look, to which I huffed at him loudly, and then licked him between the ears. “Of course, I was forgetting.”

“Jaykit and me are gonna be great warriors!” I leant into Jaykit, whose whiskers were twitching in frustration and anger. “Just you wait, Stormfur!”

I locked my amber eyes with his similar ones, daring him to say another word. 

“How about we eat tis mouse instead of playing with it?” Hollykit said quickly.

“You three share it,” Lionkit offered, and Stormfur disappeared with the distraction. “I’ll get something from the fresh-kill pile.”

I quickly took a bite out of the mouse, side-by-side with Hollykit. Jaykit wandered to the fresh-kill pile just as we finished, which meant more for us, and we wandered over to where our brothers were rooting through. 

And then Jaykit pulled out a rotting bird, maggots crawling through it.

“Look!” he declared, as if he’d found treasure. I gagged, stomach rolling. 

That mouse doesn’t taste so good the second time…

“Ugh!” Hollykit said, voicing my thoughts.

Leafpool, who was passing by from getting fleas off the elders, paused. “Well spotted. I know prey is scarce at the moment, but better to eat nothing than to eat something that will hurt your belly.”

I felt my pelt warm with her praise. Our mother loved us, even if she couldn’t really say so, due to the Medicine Cat’s Code. I’d found out just why our parentage was hidden moons ago, but occasionally I wondered who our father was. It didn’t seem to be anyone in ThunderClan.

“Jaykit found it,” Hollykit told her.

“Well he’s saved me a patient,” Leafpool mewed and I gave Jaykit a congratulatory nudge. “I’m busy enough as it is. Brackenfur and Birchfall have white-cough.”

Cat flu, but in the chest. Could become life-threatening if untreated and turned into Green-cough. Cat illnesses were fascinating, but I only knew as much as any other non-Medicine-Cat cat.

“Do you want help gathering herbs?” Jaykit offered, as desperate as the rest of us to get out of camp. I missed the days of the tree-hallow.

“We can all help!” I piped in.

“You could gather far more herbs with us to carry them back to camp!” Lionkit added.

Leafpool purred, amused. “You know you’re not meant to leave the camp until you’re apprentices.”

“But you’ll need help if there are sick cats…” Jaykit insisted, but was silenced by our mother’s tail covering his mouth.

“I’m sorry, Jaykit,” she said. “It won’t be long until Firestar gives you your apprentice names. But until then, you’ll have to wait like any other kit.”

Honestly, the whole names thing was screwy to me. Why can’t we just get one name and stick with it? Cats were so weird sometimes…

“I’m sorry,” Leafpool repeated. “But that’s just the way it is.”

Sometimes the way things _are_ aren’t the way things _should be._ I knew enough with my human experience to understand that. But I couldn’t bring it up, I was only a kit. 

“It was a good effort,” I gave Jaykit’s ear a lick. “Rules are rules, though.”

Lionkit and Hollykit didn’t look too happy about it either, though, and Jaykit just looked frustrated.

“Leafpool always thinks she can win us over just because she brings wool for our nests from the moorland,” he hissed. I flinched a little, knowing just why she did that; a mother never truly stopped wanting to care for her children, cat or human. “Or pieces of honeycomb to lick. Why can’t she just give us what we really want - a chance to explore outside the camp?”

I sat my rump down on the frozen ground next to him. “Until we’re apprentices, with warriors to train us, it’s not safe for us to go outside. We’re too small, and unsupervised, we could die very easily. It’s all part of the Code.”

“And we must stick to the warrior code,” mewed Hollykit grudgingly.

And so we ate, brooding a bit but mostly okay. Soon enough, Berrypaw, apprentice to Brambleclaw, returned with a plump wood pigeon to add to the fresh-kill pile.

“Where’s Brambleclaw?” he asked us.

“With Squirrelflight,” Jaykit answered knowingly. “They’re checking for loose stones. Up there,” he lifted his nose to where our foster parents were, indeed, checking for loose stones along the quarry wall.

“You’re sharp today, Jaykit!” Berrypaw complimented my brother, and I stopped listening.

Listening to apprentices talk about training made me ache to be out in the forest, at the shoreline of the lake, maybe going for a swim. God, I’d loved swimming before all of this. But then Berrypaw began showing us how to hunt, and I fell into the position easily, having it memorized already.

“Great as ever, Ravenkit,” he praised, and then to Lionkit. “Get your tail down! It’s sticking up like a bluebell!”

I heard, more than saw, the slap of Lionkit’s tail hitting the ground. Hollykit and Jaykit were passively copying us.

“Now, pull yourself forward, smooth as a snake,” Berrypaw commanded us with sharp eyes.

Lionkit, who’d never had a snake for a pet, (or had a father who kept dozens during his childhood) just looked awkward. I snaked a paw lightly forward, pressing it silently and then with the other. My eyes narrowed in concentration on an imaginary vole. 

As Lionkit and Hollykit got distracted, Berrypaw got closer to me, as I silently crept forward, stride smooth. 

“Nice form, Ravenkit,” he praised. “You’ll be a great hunter.”

Suddenly Jaykit’s fur was standing on end, and I looked up to see why to find Spiderleg and Thornclaw barreling through the camp entrance, paws thudding loudly. Firestar was alert in a split-second.

“What is it?” he demanded.

It was Spiderleg who gave the bad news. “There’s a dead fox on our territory!”

O…kay? 

I didn’t understand the urgency.

“Where?” Firestar demanded, though I would’ve asked about visible causes of death.

“By the Sky Oak,” Thornclaw replied, out of breath. They must’ve ran the whole way back to camp. “It was killed by a trap.”

_Ahh_ , I thought to myself. _I get the urgency. Traps can be deadly to cats, especially in a forest, easily hidden._

Cats were beginning to gather around; Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw were scrambling down to the clearing, loose pebbles falling in their wake.

“What’s happening?” the Deputy called.

“Thornclaw and Spiderleg have found a dead fox,” Firestar said simply, “Killed by a trap.”

Brambleclaw surprised me with his next words. “Male or female?”

“Female,” Spiderleg told him.

“Then there may be cubs.”

Fuck. Even fox _cubs_ could pose a danger to cats. Jaykit was whispering to Hollykit behind me, but I ignored them.

“The fox had the scent of milk on her,” Thornclaw revealed.

Firestar dipped his head wearily, “So there are definitely cubs.”

“Where was this trap?” Brambleclaw asked; there was definitely something going on there, anxiety and underlying-fear in his voice.

_None of my business_ , I reminded myself, closing my eyes. _Drink your tea._

I fucking wish I had tea.

“The trap is lakeside of the camp, not far from Sky Oak,” Thornclaw explained.

“The cubs must be near,” Brambleclaw guessed. “Their mother will not have wandered far from them.”

Then we needed to act soon. If they’re young enough, I’d say drop them in the nearest human suburbia, but depending on how big they are we might have to kill them. 

“We can’t let the forest be overrun by foxes!” Ferncloud despaired, exiting the nursery. “What about my kits?”

“We must find the den,” said Brambleclaw.

“If the cubs are very young, they’ll starve without their mother,” Firestar meowed. “It would be best to kill them quickly.”

Exactly. “Is there a twoleg-place nearby?” I asked Firestar, forgetting that I was a kit for a moment. “Foxes are known to be able to survive easily there. They pick threw what two-legs leave to find food. Cubs can easily survive there.”

Firestar stared at me silently for a moment; my mouth snapped shut. 

_Why didn’t I just drink my tea_ , I wailed mentally. _Human knowledge is a no-no!_

“There is one big enough,” he answered softly. “But it is past WindClan territory. It would be easier to simply drive them out if they’re old enough to survive.”

I nodded and scampered back a few paw-steps, to hide behind Lionkit. 

“The cubs will be hungry by now,” Ashfur pointed out. “What if they’ve ventured out of their den already?”

Track them? But I’m as silent as a mouse now, no words gonna come out of my mouth, no siree. 

“They might find the camp!” Ferncloud gasped over-dramatically. I knew she was just worried for her kits, though, so I wasn’t mad.

“The camp will remain well guarded,” promised Firestar. “I’ll take Sandstorm and check the old Thunderpath up to the empty Twoleg nest. Brambleclaw, you sort out the other patrols.” 

Firestar and Sandstorm left in a hurry, while Brambleclaw began calling cats to search.

Lionkit wasn’t having any of this kit-business, and I groaned. I’d chosen the wrong hiding place. Obviously, Hollykit was the best sibling to hide behind. 

“We’re not going to be left behind!” my loud brother announced. “Brambleclaw!”

“What?” our foster-father was impatient; obviously, he wanted to help out as much as my siblings.

_Yo wassup old man,_ I mimed mentally. _We youngsters want to test our mad skills, bro._

Human slang just sounded so funny when I thought about a cat saying it. I tried not to giggle. 

“Can’t we do something to help?” Lionkit begged, looking up at the dark-brown tabby pleadingly. “We’re nearly apprentices.”

“ _Nearly_ isn’t good enough,” Brambleclaw replied, but Lionkit’s disheartened facesoftened him up a bit. “You, Hollykit, Jaykit, and Raven kit can help guard the camp. I’m taking Dustpelt and Hazelpaw to search the lakeshore. We need brave cats to make sure those fox cubs don’t come into the hollow. If you seen or see anything strange, send Leafpool to fetch me at once.”

“Okay!” Lionkit agreed eagerly, and even I couldn’t help the sudden thrill of excitement course through me.

This might just be a grown cat’s attempt to placate some kits, but honestly, he was right. Who knew whether or not the cubs could get near the camp? And even if they were far away, we might spot them and help out!

However, when Lionkit told Jaykit and Hollykit the news, Jaykit wasn’t very happy.

“You don’t think the fox cubs would really get this far, do you?” he mewed grumpily like the little emo-kitty he was. (Oh wow, the image of Jaykit with heavily black eyeliner listening the MCR will make me laugh for days. Later, thought.) “There must be a ThunderClan apprentice behind ever tree out there. Brambleclaw’s just trying to keep us busy.”

“Don’t be such a spoilsport,” I mewed at him, nipping his ear as I passed. “Strange things can happen.”

Lionkit, though, looked like he’d been sucker-punched with the hand of disappointment. “I thought he really want us to help…”

“Ravenkit’s right,” Hollykit mewed. “The fox cubs _might_ head this way and if they do, I bet we could smell them first - especially with Jaykit helping.”

Jaykit’s fur bristled high and mighty and I knew we’d done it. “You two are just as bad as Brambleclaw. Stop trying to pretend we’re important to the Clan when we’re not.”

Hollykit kneaded the ground with her forepaws, looking determined. “We will be important one day.” She sounded like she was making a blood vow, but something in me agreed with her.

Lionkit pounced to his paws and did that thing where cats go in circles excitedly. “We’ll be important today!” he declared. “We’re going to chase those fox cubs off ThunderClan territory ourselves!”

“Oh dear,” I mumbled as Hollykit gasped. “Here we go…”

“But if we leave the camp without permission, we’ll be breaking the warrior code!”

“We’ll be doing it for the good of the Clan,” Lionkit debated, like he was trying to win over Firestar himself. “How can that be against the warrior code?”

Jaykit’s fur was flattening. “We’re not warriors yet - we’re not even apprentices! So why do we have to obey the warrior code?”

Hollykit gave a startled purr. “If we did chase off those fox cubs, Icekit and Foxkit would be safe.”

Then they all looked towards me.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we see more of the adventures of Ravenkit and co. So far the story is just a whole lot of rewriting and adding bits in, but I promise that the next chapter has a whole lot more things that weren't in the books. Chapters are somewhere between 10-16 pages long/2k-4k words and are only posted once I've written the chapter afterwards. So, I've written chapter 2, but until chapter 3 is written it won't be posted. 
> 
> Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment or kudos!


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